Feeling Under Siege

Over the past decade, there has been increasing concern about children and young people’s use of violence towards parents/carers and other family members.

At Family Lives, we have seen an escalation in calls from family members relating to concerns about the levels of violence that children and young people are using against them. This has resulted in our call-handlers raising concerns about the significant risk to parents/carers and other family members, as well as to the children themselves.

This report, Feeling Under Siege, highlights the ways in which child aggression and violence manifests itself in the family home, and identifies some of the underlying contexts that callers shared with us. It sets out recommendations on how to improve policy and practice in order to support families who are experiencing this.